Collection of index cards for homeopathic repertorial research



Patented July 8, 1941 COLLECTION oF INDEX CARDS Fon IioMEo- PATHREPER'.QRQIAJV RESEARCH y. Osorio Schlcderule Araujo, Rio de Janeiro,Brazil Application January 19, 1940, SerialNo. 314,733 4 1- rIn BrazilJanuary 19, .1939 Y The present invention relates to a system forexpeditiously selecting the homeopathic medicine which is indicated fora patient having certain observed symptoms.

The homeopathic medical repertory is com' cine which is vof a capitalValue in va givent symptom, is printed in a large, bold-face type;another one, of less valuefbut which may be used to advantage, will beindicated in italics, and a third medicine Will beprinted in commontype. Some authors give four different values to a medicine, whereasothers only mention three. This is the process which indicates the valueof the right medicines for a given symptom, or valorises them, as iscurrently said in homeopathic terminology. v

In order to prescribe the correct medicine for `a patient,l it isnecessary to take a note of all the symptoms, then, to pick out one ofthem, generally the most important one, Iand find in the repertorythe-medicines with their respective values. After carefully noting allthis down on paper, the next symptom is also looked up, and in the samemanner, al1 of the other symptoms are checked. From the comparison ofthese enormous medicines), it is found that 'some of. the medicines donot appear in all of the lists,Y whereas others are present in theirvalorised forms. From .thel further comparison, between those morehighly valorised and common to all or almost all the symptoms, thosemedicines which cover the greatest number oi symptoms are found, andamongst these will be thefone which should be prescribed, the right'amount of care being given to otherk factors, such as the type,constitution and temperament ofthe patient. Thus, according to currenthomeopathic language, a repertorial research is accomplished, which isin itself a very delicate and troublesome operation, demanding a lot ofattention so as to avoid errors which might lead to the prescription ofmedicines with no therapeuticvalue, if in fact not prejudicial,consuming considerable amount of time, never relating to it,

lists (to each symptom there are frequently 150, 200 or more less thantwo hours, some 45 spectively, so as to be ticall'y aligned.

'composed of two,

cases requiring even more than Vthis in order to check and comparecarefully these enormous lists.

This is the problem which the present collection fof index-cardslforhomeopa'thic repertorial research offers to solve with the followingadvantages: great economy of time and also the maximum; securityvpossible as lregards errors, in View vof 'the fact that its operation isoi the greatest, simplicity, as will be seen.

The inventionwill be understood by reference to the followingspecification and accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 shows with parts broken away a single card of strip which onVeach of its two long edges indicates for two symptoms the respectivevalues of a list ofmedicines.

Fig. 2 shows with parts broken away a group of six cards in process ofsuperposition with edges parallel butbeiorevertical column alignment,and

Fig. 3 shows with parts broken away a group of six cardsfcompletelysuperposed. with columns corresponding to 'a given medicine Ver- Thecollection iscomposed of a great number of index-cards, as many as arenecessary to indicate .the symptoms likely to occur in medicallpractice. Thus, for instance, for the specialised clinic of thedigestive system, or of the respiratory tract, the collection would nothave the same'ynumber of' cards as another intended for generalpractice, the latter naturally having a greater number of symptoms. 'Themedicines vary also in number, according to the length of the repertory,and may go up to 600 or more inv the largest ones, thus the cards varyalso in length. Whenever' it occurs that the number of vmedicines isgreater than v290 (for which a card of about "IO centimetres in lengthis required), samey may be printed in section-cards threeror more parts,for instance, the first one'from 1 to 200, the second from 201to 4 00,the third from 401 to 600, using Roman numbers I, II, III, to mark themreable to place them in their correct places for use. `YTheir usual sizeis about 9 centimetres, withvsmall variations determined by economy o rconvenience.

Fig. 1 is'a sample index-card in which there vis a longitudinal line awhich goes almost from one end to the other, dividing it into twohalves, eachhalf Vto be 4used for the recording of a symptom. Eachcardis ythus used forthe registering of `two diferent 'symptoms, thetotal number of cards is reduced to half of that required if eachsymptom were recorded in a separate card.

The description is given of one of these halves, and since they areidentical, it will not be necessary to describe the other.

From a lengthwise line b, which is parallel to a only somewhat shorter,there are a plurality of lines c running perpendicularly to b towardsthe margin of the same side of the card, and ending there. The regularspaces d which they form, are exactly alike, except those comprehendedbetween the th and 11th, 20th and 21st, 30th and 31st lines e (and soonuntil the end, at every ten spaces) which are wider than the others,being rigorously alike between themselves. Another line f parallel to,and of the same length as b subdivides lengthwise these spaces (d and e)into two parts: the one above which is larger d, to be used forrecording the names of the medicines, written in abbreviatedalphabetical form, in accordance with current homeopathic practice, andanother one, below, g, to be used for the printing of a valorisingnurnber h, whose value may Vary between one, two, three, or four, andwhich indicates the corresponding figure of merit value of the medicinefor the symptom relating thereto in the indexcard, whereas the medicineswhich are of no value have the corresponding spaces g blank.

The other half section of the card, i. e., the other side of the line a,has the same outline, and is used, as mentioned before, for therecording of another symptom in the same manner. Each symptom has, onthe left margin, a number printed which corresponds to the same numberin the collection and in rthe respective index-book where the name mayalso be found, in one or more languages, if necessary, together with thenumber.

In order to choose the cards corresponding to a group of symptoms thereis an index-book in which are catalogued, in one or more languages, instrict alphabetical order, all of the symptoms, preceded by the numbersof the respective cards. It is quite common to run into symptoms towhich less than ten kinds of medicines correspond. These are notrecorded, and the medicines to be used in these cases, together withtheir respective valorisations are indicated in the index, in front ofsame, in the manner habitually used in the repertories. In this manner,after going through the collection there is nothing more to do but toadd to the results the value of the medicines indicated in the index forthe symptoms not recorded, if any.

After making a note of the symptoms in a given case, the cards whichcorrespond to these symptoms are easily found with the aid of theindexbook which accompanies the collection; the first card should thenbe placed on a fiat surface, that of a table, for instance, and over ita second card, in such a manner as to allow the columns in which thenames of the same medicines are written tocorrespond exactly. It isnecessary to mention here that the spaces e above mentioned, were madewider than the others, to facilitate this process of superposition,

Fig. 2 shows a group of six cards S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, carrying thesame list of medicines, in course of superposition with cards parallelbut before vertical alignment of columns.

Fig. 3 shows these six cards completely superposed with columns aligned.

Once it is ascertained that the rst of 'these spaces corresponds to therst space of the card above or below, one can be sure that the medicinesof the same name are in exact correspondence, as is absolutelynecessary. It is quite clear, of course, that in placing the cards, theexact correspondence should be observed between the sections of theindex-cards marked by the Roman numbers, that is, I with I, II with II,III with III, otherwise it will not be possible to match the names ofthe medicines as is required by this system. Care should be taken to seethat the lower border of the second card S2 coincides with the line f ofthe rst card S1, in its full length, though not going beyond it. A thirdcard S3 is placed over the second, exactly in the same relation as the:tirst to the second. The same should be true between the fourth S4 andthe third, then also between the fifth S5 and the fourth, and so on,with as many as the case should require.

In orderto obtain a final value of each medicine from the entire groupof cards corresponding to the symptoms, it is simply necessary to add upthe numbers which correspond to each medicine in columns. As themedicine to be prescribed will perforce be found among those more highlyvalorised, it will be sufficient to add these, the most quoted ones,which show up immediately after a slight examination of the assembly.

It frequently happens that more than one medicine is found with the sametotal valorisation. The good judgment of the physician who knows thedetails of the respective indications will help him in choosing, then,which of the medicines is more appropriate for the case, and he willalso decide as to the formulas and doses to be used, in accordance withthe prevailing rules.

It can happen, also, that one of the cards being examined may cover onits two separate half-sections two symptoms of a given case. Theprocedure here is the same, using rst one side of the card for onesymptom, and adding to the results then obtained the valorizing numbersof the respective medicines for the symptom covered by the other halfsection of the card and not yet added in, which is done by taking thecard in question from the collection and adding to the medicines mosthighly valorised in the group of the cards (among which will be the oneto be prescribed) the values indicated for these medicines on the cardcorresponding to the symptom not yet added in. In this way the desiredresult is easily obtained,

Fig. 3 shows, as an example, cards arranged thus in superposition, asan.illustration of what has been explained above, and which correspondto symptoms in an illustrative assumed case. The sum total of the Valuesof the medicines most quoted is, as may be seen, 9 points for natriummuriaticum and 8 points each for nitricum acidum and nux vomica. Theothers have small mention and therefore their sums are hardly of anyinterest, the medicine to be .prescribed'being among the former. Theyappear valorised in all of the symptoms, covering them, therefore, as isdemanded in a good prescription.

In summary, we find that between choosing the cards, placing them overeach other and adding the values written in from 8 to 10 columns, at themost (the most quoted ones), a complete selection of the proper medicineis performed which takes from 10 to 15 minutes, which means an enormoussaving of time as compared to the usual procedure, and With a minimum ofrisks as to mistakes, thus settling in an ideal Way the problem ofrepertorial researches, which really means solving the importantquestion of similimum in a practical, sure and rapid procedure.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my saidinvention and the manner in which same is to be performed, I declarethat what I claim is:

1. In a prescription system, a series of similar cards each ruled withidentical adjacent parallel columns and being further ruled with aguideline running lengthwise of said card perpendicularly transverselyof said columns, all of said cards carrying a series of identical:prescription indicia respectively positioned on one side of said guideline, each card bearing an individual identication symbol adapted toshow the purpose thereof and further carrying in certain of said columnson the side of said guide-line free of prescription indi-cia, valorisingadditive numerals representing the value for the purpose of said symbolof the prescribed indicia appearing in said column, said cards beingadapted to be superposed in echelon with columns carrying the sameprescription indicia in register and the edge of one card lying on theguide line of the card beneath for the convenient addition of saidvalorising additive numerals appearing in said columns respectively.

2. In aprescription system, a series of similar cards each ruled withidentical adjacent parallel columns, all of said cards carrying a serieslof identical remedy indicia respectively positioned at a rst end ofeach said column, each of said cards carrying the name of .an individualsymptom to which it individually corresponds and further carrying at thesecond end of certain of said columns valorising additive numbersrepresenting the value of the symptom corresponding to said card of theremedy appearing at the rst end of said column, said valorising numeralsbeing chosen to represent the relative values of the remedies appearingopposite a given remedy additively so that valorising numbers appearingopposite a given remedy on different cards of said series when addedmeasure the eii'icacy of said remedy for the totality of symptomsrepresented by said series of cards.

3. A system according to claim 1, each of said cards having on each ofits longitudinal halves a separate said series of columns, guide-line,purpose symbol, and valorising numeral.

4. A system according to claim 1, each tenth column in said series ofcolumns being of substantially greater width than the others of saidcolumns.

OZORIO SCHLEDER DE ARAUJO.

